In recent years, school districts, the town, fire districts, and village governments have been issuing refund checks to commercial businesses and some homeowners. The above noted taxing jurisdictions issue as much as $10 million a year on refund checks. The lost revenue means that everyone's property taxes have to go up or services have to go down. One way to stop the grievances and refund checks is to conduct a reassessment of town properties. The last time a reassessment took place in the town was in the mid 1950s . Should the town conduct a reassessment of properties? Should hardship provisions be authorized by the state to ease the transition? How would a reassessment impact your neighborhood and friends?

There will be a reassessment forum held on January 26, 2011 at 7:30 at the Town Board meeting at Town Hall. This portion of the Town Board meeting will last from 7:30 PM to 9 PM. The presentation will be given by the Office of Real Property Tax Services Acting Deputy Commissioner, Victor Mallison and Southern Regional Director, John Wolham. The presentation will present the pros and cons of a town wide revaluation with regard to the following: Background of the real property tax in New York State; How the Town can attain and maintain fair and equitable assessments; and Explanation on what a reassessment is and what it does. They will discuss the impacts on the different property types and on exemptions where applicable. We have also invited the Mayor of Bronxville to discuss the positive and negative ramifications of their revaluation. Lastly, there will be an opportunity for questions and answers as well. We hope you can join us and also hope that you will encourage your neighbors to attend.

A suggestion has been made for the town to conduct an impact study to determine impacts reassessment could have on different neighborhoods. This study will help the town and state officials come up with state legislative initiatives that would address hardships if the town decides to proceed.